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Topic: R&R while other agents have your full (Read 492 times)

I received an R & R and the advice given resonated with me, so I made changes to the manuscript. I haven't overhauled the whole thing, just changed several scenes from telling to showing, both in response to the R & R and feedback another agent gave me.

Four other agents are currently holding my full. Some for a couple of months, some only a couple of weeks. Should I contact them letting them know I have a revised manuscript? I've seen highly contradictory advice and am anxious about not shooting myself in the foot either way.

Suppose you let them know about the revised ms, and suppose one/some/all ask for version 2. And then suppose you get another R&R, which leads to V.3. Are you going to alert everyone to it? And then suppose, just suppose.... well, you get the idea.

I wouldn't start down that road. You're always going to see things you want to change, right up until the day it's published. (Oh, wait! There could be a second edition!)

A few minor changes isn't enough to contact them. Actually, even if you performed a huge overhaul on the manuscript I'm not sure I personally would contact them with the new version. I'd wait for their response and, if negative, offer sending the revised book. But that's only if it was hugely different from the version they saw.

Oops, I should have read here earlier! That's the problem with wildly different time zones. I followed advice found on agent blogs and sent a letter, with so far one cheerful response saying yes please send the new version. This is my first time querying and it's a learning curve. I wouldn't send any further revisions, but since I'd already been rejected twice (that I know of) for this particular issue, I felt it was better to address it than face further rejections because of it.

I think the R&R should remain between you and the agent who you are dealing with. Write it up on a copy of the original and see if it seems better to you. If it is, and that original agent falls through, use it later. If any of the agents with your full then ask for some edits, discuss with them.

Updating this for anyone searching the topic later: all the agents who had my full were very happy to receive the revised manuscript and thanked me for keeping them updated. I didn't worry about notifying the agent who has my partial.

In my letter I advised them that I'd received an R&R and the advice resonated so I'd made changes regarding a specific issue. I offered them the revised edition or just the information that changes had been made incase that issue was something they were concerned with also. I included two humble apologies in the letter and thanked them for their time and consideration.